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How do I make visibly rotating turrets?
How can I make turrets that sit on top of the ships and rotate to track targets independently of ship heading and movement? (to look like turrets on a real-life battle ship.)
I'm an experienced 3D modeler and animator for games but a total newby to Nova Tools.
J_I_Logan@mac.com
J_I_Logan, on Jan 17 2005, 08:54 AM, said:
J_I_Logan@mac.com View Post
What you could do is make the turrets an animated part of a ship, kinda like the Leviathan, although I'm not sure how much control you'd have over them.
Not the control he'd want. They wouldn't point at things that they shoot, and the most he could do would make them spin around regardless, or do something when the ship fires a secondary weapon. No actual enemy ship tracking though.
Phyvo is right, you can't have turrets track ships visibly. Animated ship parts for weapons are best used for guns for which they need recoil.
Make some type of port that opens... Is it possible to have a sprite that originates at that point? Like a glowing ball that comes out of an "opening" on the top of the ship and crosses over the ship sprite?
You could do it, but it would require a special kind of shot - it would need to be a beam or just supposedly fire REALLY quick. That said...
Make it part of the weapon sprite.
This post has been edited by orcaloverbri9 : 17 January 2005 - 12:45 PM
It isnt possible, even using weapon sprites. With the current NOVA engine, there is no way to do it
I thought about the turret being a carried fighter but I need the turrets in specific places on the ship and not flying off when told to attack.
These turrets don't have to be the 'normal' ones in Nova. Any way is OK.
Actually, don't you find it surprising that such an obvious feature was not put into the engine from the start?
Not really. The engine was coded to the specifications of the ATMOS scenereo, which did not require it.
The turret would have to be freaking huge for there to be any point in making it track visibly. I think most would agree that while such a feature may be nice, it isn't exactly an "obvious feature" which everyone misses.
Guy, on Jan 18 2005, 10:42 AM, said:
The turret would have to be freaking huge for there to be any point in making it track visibly. I think most would agree that while such a feature may be nice, it isn't exactly an "obvious feature" which everyone misses. View Post
That, precisely, Is the point.
Jules, on Jan 17 2005, 02:38 PM, said:
And why wold that be? Does Nova hide the rest of the sprite underneath the ship, so that the turret wouldn't be visibile?
OK. Forget about the turrets being turrets or weapons. That can be worked around. Is there ANY way to make a ship (or ships that work together in static formation) that has an animation that faces (tracks) an enemy?
BTW: speaking of "freaking huge", what about missles that are almost as large as fighters?
I think it's possible to have an enemy-tracking system if you don't mind that it would instantly snap back to a pre-determined position when you stop firing or when the enemy leaves, nor that it would instantly change direction as you change targets or the game changes targets.
Oh, and it would only track one ship at a time.
My thoughts: a weapon, turreted or point-defense turreted (if it was a point-defense turret, it could automatically track enemies if the enemy can be fired upon by a PD turret), with a 1-frame-lifetime shot that looks like a turret and is not made to be transparent (and if it was meant to be used by the AI or as a PD weapon, the shot would have to submunition into an invisible projectile with long range, so the game would actually fire it at range). The ship's sprite would have a weapon-firing animation that instantly switches from a graphic with turrets pointing straight ahead, to one without turrets and with holes in the mask to allow the "turret-shots" to show through from beneath. The turret exit points, the turret-shot sprite, and the ship sprite would be carefully made to line up perfectly. In theory.
Actually, I don't know whether PD turrets trigger a ship's weapon animation, so PD turrets might not be an option.
The ship couldn't have other weapons, since any weapon that the user fires will trigger the weapon animation, which necessitates the turret-gun being the one that fires.
(edit) Or, all the weapons would have to be primary, and for AI usage, the turret-gun would have to be the longest range weapon so it always is being fired at the same time or before/after other weapons are fired.
This post has been edited by Weepul 884 : 18 January 2005 - 03:11 AM
A PD should work if you check the "Uses ships weapon sprite" flag and you wouldn't have to worry about other weapons if they all didn't have that flag checked. I don't think you can create "holes" in the base sprite though - the other sprites are simply layered over the top of it. Of course, you can just check the flag in the ship resource: "Ship's turreted shots appear above the ship instead of below". And instead of making it sub into some invisible long range weapon, why not just make it sub into the actual weapon you want?
(EDIT): Unfortunately, shots with little or no speed don't point to the target very well. Ie, a shot with 0 speed will always point either directly right or left. Making it fast isn't too bad except you might notice it move during it's 1 frame of life.
This post has been edited by Guy : 18 January 2005 - 04:17 AM
Thanks guys but I can't get it to work. It just left a string of the turrets (facing left or right) behind my ship as I moved. Maybe I just don't get it.
Can't you adjust the shot life to be visible for less time on screen?
"Decay" or something like that. Or have it decay almost instantly into an invisible explosion?
I would like to see this work...
This post has been edited by rmx256 : 18 January 2005 - 07:41 AM
Guy, on Jan 18 2005, 01:52 AM, said:
A PD should work if you check the "Uses ships weapon sprite" flag and you wouldn't have to worry about other weapons if they all didn't have that flag checked.
No, "Use ship's weapon sprite" is for the weapon glow effect, not the "unfolds to fire" animation. Any weapon will trigger "unfolds to fire", except for PD weapons, I think.
Quote
I don't think you can create "holes" in the base sprite though
Sure you can.
the other sprites are simply layered over the top of it. Of course, you can just check the flag in the ship resource: "Ship's turreted shots appear above the ship instead of below".
Oh, such a flag exists? Then you don't need holes...but an "unfolds to fire" that makes the turrets disappear would still be needed.
And instead of making it sub into some invisible long range weapon, why not just make it sub into the actual weapon you want?
I think it would look better if the turrets appear to constantly track the target even when not firing the "real" weapon...or depending on the method, in between shots during a holding-down-the-fire-button period of time, rather than the turrets reverting to the default position in between shots.
This post has been edited by Weepul 884 : 18 January 2005 - 09:18 AM
Weepul 884, on Jan 18 2005, 02:16 PM, said:
Oh, such a flag exists? Then you don't need holes...but an "unfolds to fire" that makes the turrets disappear would still be needed.View Post
Why do you need an "unfolds to fire" rather than just a weapon sprite? Or if the turret was completely circular you wouldn't need additional sets at all - the shot itself would cover up the base turret.
Ah, I get ya. I was thinking it looked a little silly the way I had it with the turret flashing to face the enemy for one frame and then flicking back again.
Well, if you used 'unfold to fire,' and you made the weapon a submunitioning one, and it had a turret graphic for the explosion from the first projectile, then the submuntioned blast might look like it came from the turret.
And the turret would be an explosion with just one repeating frame, for as long as the 'unfolds to fire' thingy is actually active. And it just might work... If done correctly